User:ToddFromSales/sandbox

Early Life
Del Staecker (Delmar Rey Staecker) was born in Blue Island, Illinois on November 23, 1950, one of six children born to Irvin H. Staecker, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, and Dorothy Bettenhausen Staecker. His family came from farming backgrounds, and Staecker spent much of his youth milking cows, bailing hay, and doing chores on his relatives’ farms while also finding time to be a Boy Scout and play Little League baseball.

A loner, Staecker often took the train from Blue Island to Chicago’s Old Town, just a few miles away. There, he visited his Uncle ErlingKjelland at his exotic bird shop, Sedgwick Studio, where beat-era icons such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Bob Dylan visited.

Staecker survived a two-year battle against leukemia, and at age fifteen, his family moved him to Vero Beach, Florida where he completed high school. Staecker went to The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, where he was an Honors graduate (Class of 1972), then served in the United States Army, where he assisted with Operation Baby Lift, relocating children from Viet Nam.

Career
After his discharge from the U.S. Army, Staecker began a career in the not-for-profit sector as a development officer, focusing on raising funds for charitable organizations. During his thirty-year fundraising career, Staecker worked for St. Thomas Hospital (Nashville, TN), The American College (Bryn Mawr, PA), and Heartbeat International (Columbus, OH) among others. He started his own fundraising consulting company in 1992 and raised the money needed to build the Country Music Hall of Fame (Nashville, TN), restore the Ringling family estate, C’Dzan, and construct Tampa Childrens Hospital.

Staecker served the nonprofit industry as Chairman of the National Society of Fundraising Executives (now American Fundraising Professionals) from 1990 to 1992, and penned the industry’s “Donor Bill of Rights,” a declaration listing universal rights of donors to charitable causes. Staecker led the project, which included the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute. The Donor Bill of Rights also was endorsed by Independent Sector, National Catholic Development Conference (NCDC) National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG), the Council for Resource Development (CRD), and the United Way of America.

Tired of fundraising and looking for something to do to change his life, Staecker left the world he knew in 2006, moved to an isolated cabin near Riggins, Idaho and ran a white-water rafting company while writing his first novel. That novel, The Muted Mermaid, received strikingly positive reviews. Nicolas Gage, co-executive producer of The Godfather, Part III, wrote that the novel was “rich, complex and satisfying;” John Seigenthaler (founding editorial director of USA Today) referred to Staecker as “a master storyteller.”

Shaved Ice, the second book in what was to be a trilogy, was published in 2008. The final installment, Chocolate Soup, was published in 2010. Both books also won critical acclaim, and the trilogy was described as “a deftly written masterpiece” by Midwest Book Review.

Staecker turned to non-fiction in 2009, fulfilling a promise to his father to write the story of the “Chicago boys” and their experiences on the USS Fuller, a World War II assault transport ship, that served primarily in the Pacific Theatre. The Lady Gangster: A Sailor’s Memoir received awards and accolades, and recognition by the United States Navy, which named Staecker a Writer on Deck in 2012 and hosted him on a speaking tour for American bases in the Mediterranean.

Sailor Man: The Troubled Life and Times of J.P. Nunnally, USN (non-fiction), followed in 2015, from the letters of a sailor who served on the USS Fuller along with Irvin Staecker, Del’s father. Another critically acclaimed work, Sailor Man won the praise of, among others, Underrated Reads, who said, “Sailor Man should be required reading in boot camp…in high school…somewhere!”

In 2012, Staecker was invited to submit a story for a collection of crime tales. Although the collection never reached publication, Staecker’s contribution, Blind One-Legged Johnny, became the first chapter in Tales of Tomasewski (2013) and was followed up with More Tomasewski (2014) after a warm reception.

Inspired by his visits to Long Beach Island, New Jersey and Ocean City, New Jersey, Staecker wrote One Good Man (fiction) in 2016, with, as found in most of Staecker’s writings, anthropological insights into the nature of man and how one person can be a catalyst for good in an overwhelmingly materialistic world.

A member of the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW), Staecker twice chaired the Hammett Prize Reading Committee. The Hammett Prize, named for Dashiel Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, among other works, is awarded annually.

Non-Fiction
The Lady Gangster: A Sailor’s Memoir (2009)

Sailor Man: The Troubled Life and Times of J.P. Nunnally, USN (2015)

Fiction
The Muted Mermaid (2008)

Shaved Ice (2008)

Chocolate Soup (2010)

Tales of Tomasewski (2012)

More Tomasewski (2014)

One Good Man (2016)

Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions
Lifetime Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (UK)

Knight of Honor, Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Order of Knights Hospitaller

U.S. Army veteran; Operation Baby Lift

2009 Silver Medal, Military Writers Society of America (The Lady Gangster: A Sailor’s Memoir)

2009 Gold, Branson Stars and Flags Book Awards (The Lady Gangster: A Sailor’s Memoir)

2010 Silver Medal, Military Writers Society of America (Trilogy:  The Muted Mermaid, Shaved Ice, Chocolate Soup)

2012  Writer on Deck, U.S. Navy

2012  Finalist, Author of the Year, Military Writers Society of America

2015  Gold Medal, Military Writers Society of America (Sailor Man: The Troubled Life and Times of J.P. Nunnally, USN)